Speak as God Speaks (Matthew 5:33-37)

God is not man that He should lie, or a son of man that He should change His mind. He has said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it? These words come from the Old Testament book of Numbers 23 .19 where we see that God is not like us.

God does not and cannot lie. He does not change His mind. If He says He will do something, God will most certainly do it, won't He? Knowing this truth about God in light of the Apostle Peter quoting Leviticus in 1 Peter 1 .16 when he says, You shall be holy, for I am holy.

You see, God cannot lie because God is holy. So everything that comes forth from God is truth because of His holiness. And according to God's word there in Leviticus and repeated by the Apostle Peter, we are to be holy.

The Sermon on the Mount and the Problem of Oaths

So the title of today's message is, Speak as God Speaks. So how does God speak? God speaks with understandable, clear, honest and precise language, doesn't He? He is never manipulative, He is never vague, He is never deceiving.

Unlike the father of lies, God is always truthful and clear. So I wanted us to read today's passage here in the Sermon on the Mount in light of this truth about God. The holiness and the truthfulness of God.

So go ahead and open your copy of God's word if you have not already to Matthew chapter 5 starting in verse 33 today as we begin to look at the fourth example that Jesus gives in clarifying and distinguishing between the interpretation of the law by the religious leaders of that day and what He, the author of the law, says that they mean.

Starting to read there in verse 33 of chapter 5, Jesus says, Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil. This is the reading of God's holy inspired word.

Let's go to Him in prayer once again and ask that He illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth. Lord, we come to You once again humbly, and we acknowledge our frailty, we acknowledge that our inability with this sinful flesh to be able to comprehend Your truth in its fullest.

But God, You have given those of us in here who are in You the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You have imputed Your righteousness upon us and so that we now can understand these things. But God, even now it's still difficult.

So God, I pray that You will illuminate those truths to our hearts and minds. Give us clarity on this passage. In Christ's name, amen. Alright, well most of us in here are familiar with this phrase. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.

Right? What's that from?

Court, right?

Testifying in court. If you're going to stand up on the seat and testify for any reason in court, they swear you in. Why do they do this? Why do they swear people in to tell the truth when they're in court?

It's because court requires the utmost truth, doesn't it? Truth is required for clarity. And so, usually a person's life, a person's reputation, a person's future is at stake and so they know that they must have this.

But why the formality? Why do they have people put their hand on a Bible and the other hand up and go through this phrase of swearing them in? Can't they just trust the word of another person? Well, of course not.

We all know that's not true. Even the world knows that man's propensity is not towards truth-telling unless it benefits him. Even the world knows this. That's why they need to go through the formality of seeking to put safeguards like swearing in and what they're doing is they're desiring to mitigate the lies.

They're hoping to mitigate the lie as much as possible and to be able to then incriminate the liar if and when they are exposed with a lie because they know the nature of man is to not tell the truth.

Now this dishonesty is obviously not new to our culture and our time period. Everybody always thinks today is the worst day that's ever been. This is not a new thing. We saw it right there with the serpent in the garden.

Remember?

You shall not surely die. Did God really say? Deceitfulness, the father of lies. It was right there. And this problem of deceptiveness and dishonesty, this has been in a perpetual downward spiral ever since that moment.

But much like today during Jesus's earthly ministry, he is preaching this sermon to these people there. The religious leaders, they sought to mitigate the lies. They knew their own propensity and the propensity of mankind and they wanted to mitigate it as much as possible.

Yet at the same time, those religious leaders sought to find the loopholes. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? You're hearing a pattern here with these examples from Jesus. Just like the ones he's previously talked about.

We talked about divorce last week.

Remember?

The religious leaders knew that divorce was wrong. They knew that divorce was against God. But yet they desperately wanted a loophole. They desperately wanted the option of divorce. And it's the same here.

These people, they knew the law of God. They knew that they were told not to bear false witness. But they also knew that they needed the option to bear false witness. How else are they going to function in this world?

How else are they going to do business the way they need to? How else are they going to get their way unless they deceive? Unless they don't tell the truth in every area of life. They need a loophole in and out.

The Perversion of Oaths by Man

Which leads us to the first thing that I want us to see in our passage today. I want us to see the perversion of an oath made by man. The perversion of an oath made by man. Look at our passage here in verse 33.

He says, again you have heard that it was said. Now remember, Jesus is making a contrast here. Notice he doesn't say, again you have read it in God's word. Or again you have been told the truth about God's word.

No, he's pointing at what they've been heard is an interpretation, not God's word. And he goes on and says, it was said to those of old. You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.

It seems like a good principle, doesn't it? What's wrong with this statement? If Jesus is making a contrast, what's the problem with this statement? You see, this teaching that he just quoted here was actually derived by a distorted combination of three different passages from the Old Testament.

But the religious leaders, instead of merely representing each of those three different passages within their context, they taught their interpretation of what those three passages should mean. Now we don't have time today to delve into those three passages.

That may be a good study to do later. If you want, I can give you those passages after service. But that's not the purpose today. Just know that this is what Jesus is quoting. Jesus isn't quoting Old Testament scripture here.

Jesus is pointing to what they've been taught as an interpretation of the Old Testament scripture. Because this teaching and their tradition that they had formulated for everyone to follow so that they can find all of the loopholes and all of the regulations and they know exactly how to carry out the letter of the law, lead them to believe that they were only bound to tell the truth under oath.

Think about that for a second. These are the religious leaders. They're the ones that are interpreting the law of God. The law of God tells them that you shall not bear false witness, that you shall not lie.

But now they've put all their little pieces together and they've contrived this doctrine and this tradition and this follow-through where now everyone standing there listening to Jesus is under the impression that as long as I don't make a proper oath, I'm not bound by my word.

I can deceive, I can manipulate, and I'm okay with God because I've not technically sinned against His law. So this is the backdrop of what's happening here. Once again, they're seeking to manipulate the system to benefit their own sinful desires, aren't they?

They want an out. They want to be able to lie, so they've got to figure out how to do it. We actually have record of the rabbinic teaching of that day. Things like, listen to this one. If you swear by Jerusalem, you are not bound by your vow.

This is tradition. This is rabbinic teaching of the day to the law. If you swear by Jerusalem, you are not bound by your vow. But if you swear towards Jerusalem, then you are bound by your vow. Essentially what they're doing here is they're crossing their fingers behind their back.

So what they're saying is, I can go to my neighbor and work out a business deal, and if I vow by Jerusalem and he doesn't catch it, it's like I made a promise with my fingers crossed. It doesn't matter.

I don't have to live up to it. I can cheat him, and I can be dishonest, and I'm still okay with God. But if he catches me, I have to vow towards Jerusalem. And now I kind of have to stick to it because that's what the law teaches.

And now that's the only time I have to obey God in telling the truth. See, we also know this is their way of thinking because Jesus actually calls it out later in Matthew. As a matter of fact, turn to Matthew 23, just a few chapters over.

Matthew 23, verse 16. This is Jesus. This is a scathing rebuke of the religious leaders. This whole section right here in 23, you can just see Jesus, this righteous anger being poured out upon these religious leaders.

And we're going to look starting in verse 16. I want you to see the clarification of how they thought. Matthew 23, verse 16.

Jesus says,.

Woe to you blind guides who say if anyone swears by the temple, remember, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. You blind fools, for which is greater the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

And you say, if anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath. You blind men, for which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

You see, Jesus is calling them out on their shenanigans here, isn't he? Keep your thumb there because we're going to look at this passage later. You see, they knew that they couldn't get around passages like Numbers 30, verse 2.

It says,.

If a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. And so they interpret these types of passages to mean only a vow to the Lord is binding. That's why when they say a vow made towards Jerusalem, the city of David, that that is somehow a vow to the Lord.

But if you make it by Jerusalem, that's not a vow to the Lord. And that's just one of many little ways that they did their little fingers crossed behind their backs. And this is why they tried to make the distinctions with the temple, with the gold, with the sacrifices and the altar that Jesus calls them out on in Matthew 23.

But being dishonest was otherwise not a sin to them. They were OK with this. This was this was rampant. We think that we live in a dishonest culture, which we do. But it's no different than the time of Jesus.

These people are just as dishonest in their minds. You can cheat your neighbor. You can manipulate those around you, your family, your friends. You can you can purposely deceive another and you can outright lie unless you intentionally vow to the Lord.

Now, we sit here like very haughty and say, how could they come to that conclusion? What were they thinking? We know better than that, don't we? We know better than they did. We know that it's a lie. Yet in our hearts, we're standing at the street corner.

Thank you, Lord, for not making me like these Pharisees. No, we call it a little white lie, don't we? Just a little white lie. It's not hurting anybody. It's just a little manipulation of the truth. Or we withhold vital information to slightly manipulate the situation so that it can go our way.

And I mean, God understands that. God overlooks those little lies, doesn't he? I mean, God's got bigger fish to fry, right? Than my small little lie over here. After all, I need the situation to go the way I want it to go.

And the only way it'll go the way I want it to go is if I can manipulate the situation by not being honest. Either by refraining from telling key elements of truth. Don't look holy. I got beat up on this the past couple of weeks.

We're all guilty of it, aren't we?

I know I am.

Where our flesh comes in and we make excuses. And then we look at the Pharisees and the Sadducees, all the religious leaders, and we say,.

How dare they?

Let's not lose sight of how this applies to us. Because Jesus' words, they're aimed at us also, aren't they? We're all guilty of it in one way or another. And it's because of our sinful flesh. It's because of the flesh that is within each one of us that we still have as we're being sanctified in this world.

As we're becoming more like Christ, hopefully that flesh is being stripped away. Hopefully those lies are being stripped away. And part of us looking at God's word and having our minds renewed is part of that process.

So that we can leave this place and go out and say, I want to mortify that flesh. I want to destroy that sin. I want to be a person that speaks as God speaks. I want to be honest about everything that I do.

But that legalistic desire to keep our flesh doing what we want to do, right? Every one of us in here is either a legalist or a recovering legalist, aren't we? Every single one of us, it's constantly.

It's pulling at us. We're trying to manipulate God's law, yet still do what we want to do. I'm technically being somewhat obedient to you, God. I didn't cheat on my taxes this year, but I did tell that little white lie to my coworker.

We lie for our own benefit because of our sinful flesh. And this is why the oath of a man has been perverted. It's been distorted to fit our own agendas. And this is exactly why Jesus in this passage, he exposes, and this is our second point, he exposes the futility of an oath made by man.

The Futility of Swearing by Created Things

The futility of an oath made by man. Look at verse 34. It says, but I say to you. Remember, Jesus is making that contrast. This is what they said to you. That's not true. I'm the one that created the law.

I get to interpret it. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all. Now there's much debate as to what Jesus is actually saying here. Some take these words of Jesus very literally, and they believe that Jesus is forbidding the act of an oath in every circumstance and everything.

I mean, you see, there's actually religious groups. If I'm not mistaken, I believe the Amish take that perspective. They will not take an oath in a court of law. They will not take an oath at all. They will not make a promise.

They will not swear.

They will never take an oath because they believe Jesus is saying to not ever take any type of an oath. And at face value, that seems to be what he's saying, doesn't it? That seems to be pretty legitimate, and it's what he says.

He says, I say to you, do not take an oath at all. However, Scripture never contradicts itself, does it? Scripture is always true to itself. And Jesus is the author of all of this, and so he would not contradict himself in this.

See, we see oaths being made and prescribed throughout the Old Testament, just like the one back in Numbers 30 that we looked at. We see these prescribed. We see oaths being made. We also see them in the New Testament.

As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul, he uses them quite often. Once in Romans 1 .9, That's an oath. We see him do it again in 2 Corinthians 1 .23. This is the Apostle Paul. In the New Testament-inspired word, he's making an oath.

So is this contradicting Jesus? Is this going against what Jesus says? I'll take it even further. Even God is seen in Scripture making an oath. God himself, the perfect holy one, making an oath. Now, he makes an oath as an example to us.

Because all of his words are true, he has no need to take an oath. But this is the anthropomorphic language for us to understand a little bit of our context of what Jesus is doing. But in Hebrews 6 .13, the writer there says, Since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.

Do you understand what he's saying there? That when God made that covenant with Abraham, and he made a promise to Abraham, there was nothing in creation greater than him for him to swear by. So what did he swear by?

Himself, because he is perfect. That is a perfect promise that will most certainly be fulfilled. Again, that's imagery for us. Now, I need you to remember that verse. You don't have to turn there, but I want you to remember the context of that verse.

It's very important as we keep going. So this can't possibly be what Jesus is saying in this passage, that we can never take an oath. However, they come to this conclusion because of the Greek construction that's going on with how we translate this.

This do not take an oath at all is what's called an unconditional negative. What that means is it typically means without exception. And so when you read it, even in the Greek, it's very deceiving and confusing in a sense because we think, well, Jesus is saying without exception that unconditional negative.

This has got to be the interpretation, yet it won't contradict other scripture. And again, with the context of Jesus' words, most theologians, most scholars believe that he is not talking about every single oath made.

He's talking about this nonchalant, flippant, unfaithful, unthoughtful, hypocritical type of taking an oath. You guys know what I'm talking about. Have you ever seen somebody say, I swear that this is true when they're telling a story, right?

Or they're wanting to confirm either a lie. It's usually a lie when they go to swearing, right? But even a lie or something else that's going on, there's this flippant oath being made. There's a swearing by something else.

And that's what we believe Jesus is talking about. So when he says, do not take an oath at all, he's actually referring to what he's getting ready to say.

Okay?

He's referring to what he's getting ready to say. And what is he getting ready to say? Look at the passage. He says, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven. Why? He says, for it is the throne of God.

And he goes on.

Or by earth.

Why is that? For it is his footstool.

Right?

Jesus has already made the earth his footstool. This belongs to him. And he goes on. He says, or by Jerusalem. For it is the city of the great king. What he says encompasses everything in creation. Everything that God has created.

You can't swear by a created thing.

You get that?

You can't swear by a created thing. To swear by anything. To swear by anything except the greatest thing. And what is the greatest thing? God himself.

Right?

To swear by anything except the greatest thing is utterly futile. It carries no weight. That oath is futile. Everything belongs to God. He goes even further. I think Jesus, there's an element of, I don't want to call it facetiousness.

But it's almost like you can see him driving the point home. Real close to home. When he said, even your hair on your head. Look at 36. It says, and do not take an oath by your head. For you cannot make one hair white or black.

He's saying, hey man. None of this belongs to you. Not even the hair on your head. Why are you swearing by it? Why are you taking an oath by that? Because remember, this is what the religious leaders are saying.

Hey, you swear by Jerusalem, you're okay. You swear towards Jerusalem, well that's to the Lord.

Right?

You swear by the altar, you're okay. But if you swear by the sacrifice on the altar, you've got to hold it. You see the connection with what Jesus is saying? Jesus is saying, don't take an oath at all.

If it's going to be pointed in these directions. All of these traditions that you're building upon. And think that that's holy. And think that you're following the law of God. Because you follow these stupid traditions that have no bearing.

Because all of creation belongs to me. Including the hair on your head. You have no right to it. You have no means to swear by it.

It's futile.

So flip back with me to chapter 23 of Matthew. I told you to put your thumbs there. Where Jesus was rebuking their traditions. Matthew 23, look at verse 20. He says, so whoever swears by the altar, swears by it.

And by everything on it. See what he's saying here? Whoever swears by the altar, swears by it. And by everything on it. Verse 21, and whoever swears by the temple, swears by it. And by him who dwells in it.

Catch that, him. Who's dwelling in the temple?

God.

Verse 22, and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God. And by him who sits upon it. What he's saying is in your futile oath. In your little oath that you've tried to manipulate and say that little thing over there.

I can swear by it, but it holds no bearing with the law. So I can deceive and I can go against my oath. It holds no weight. We know that it doesn't. But what God is saying is that you're still held to it because he owns it.

You're still swearing to him. When you swear by the hair on your head that you will do something and then go against it. You've sworn to God because you've sworn on an item that belongs to him. So you've sworn to him.

There's nothing created that you can swear to. That doesn't ultimately lead to you swearing by God. And making an oath to God himself. You see how small we are and how big God is? But yet we look at the law and want to find ourselves in the midst of it.

Tie ourselves into theology and into the doctrine. We're so much more important than we ever thought we were. No, you're a lot smaller than you ever thought you were.

So am I.

God is a lot bigger than we ever thought he was. So Jesus is saying, do not swear. Do not take an oath by any of these means. Oh, while profaning the name of God, they take these oaths. You'd be better off not making an oath at all.

Right?

You're better off not making an oath at all if you are not going to stick to it. This leads us to our third and final point. Every word should be an oath made to God. Every word that comes forth from our mouth is an oath to God.

Look at verse 37. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil. Deuteronomy 23 .23 says, You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

It comes out of your mouth. You've made an oath to God. See, I read Numbers 23 .19 at the beginning, how the character of God is one of utmost truth and how we are called to be holy as He is holy. When God speaks, He speaks with clarity, precision, and honesty.

That means that every single word that comes from our lips is an oath before God.

Do you get that?

Do you understand the gravity and the weight of this? Let your yes be yes and your no be no. There's no reason to even take an oath per se to God because everything that comes forth from your mouth is an oath to God and God holds you to the standard of fulfilling what you say you will fulfill, either to Him or to others around you.

Pure, 100 honesty, 100 of the time. Now, if you're like me, that scares you. That's a scary thought, isn't it? How many times do we speak words without even thinking through them? How many times have we said, I'll pray for you, brother, and never really prayed?

How many lies have we told unwillingly? It's overwhelming, isn't it? But yet we're to speak as God speaks. Precision, clarity, truth, honesty. So you may be asking, how can we live up to this? How is this possible?

How can we speak with such clarity and precision and honesty? How do we speak as God speaks? I'm glad you asked. We can't. At least not with perfection. Anyone in here thinks they can is fooling themselves.

Not with perfection. But we must remember the righteousness of Christ. That's why we're gathered in here this morning, right? The righteousness of Christ can because Christ's words are perfect because Christ is the Lord.

The righteousness of Christ that has been accredited to your account if you are in Him this morning. Don't check out on me just yet. Think about that for a second. You hear it every single week, we hear it every single week, and we must hear it every single week.

Because you can't stand on your own, I can't stand on my own. The words that come from my mouth are not pure all the time perfectly,.

And I can't.

But Christ can. It's all about Him and His righteousness. And the Holy Spirit that is within us who can, who is perfect, and everything comes from His perfect is dwelling within us, and He's prompting us to speak the way He speaks,.

To speak the truth,.

And giving us the power to day by day mortify this lying, deceitful, manipulative flesh that is within us. Think about that. Within us, the Holy Spirit is there. We're not to grieve the Holy Spirit, are we?

We do with our sin, but He is prompting us, constantly drawing us. If you feel conviction this morning over telling untruths, or being manipulative or deceiving, that's the Holy Spirit working in you.

That's not my words, I have no power to convict you. But Christ does, the Holy Spirit does, and He's working within you, prompting you to be and to speak as He speaks. Because when we walk in the light as He is in the light, those lies are burned away, aren't they?

It's like bacteria in the sun. It gets burned away, our lies. So walk in the light, brothers and sisters. Walk in the light as He is in the light.

Amen?

Don't seek to defeat the deceit within yourself and your own power. Your flesh will win every time. We've all experienced that, haven't we? That pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality. I'm not going to lie, I'm always going to tell the truth.

It doesn't work.

We must rely on Him. Because when we trust in Christ who has already defeated that deceit, we have victory. And in light of that good news, let us prepare to go to the table. This is what we do every single week.

Brother Mike, if you wouldn't mind standing up at this table and pulling the towel back, he'll be up on this side, I'll be up on this side.